Did you ever consider the possibility he had done a search, and was confused or lost within its results? For example, maybe he cant get the search criteria to bring up what he wants, or cant find a good example?

So rather than just sending people back out on their own we return them to the web with at least SOME sort of guidence. I am not saying do the work for him/her, but damn dude be of a little more help. Were here to help not to send them away, which is all your reply accomplished.

What I find absurd about their criticism is the fact that the OP said absolutely nothing about what they meant. Did they want to create images? As such, having info on file formats might be handy. Did they mean they wanted to display them? Did they want to convert them? What is it exactly they want to do? What type of image do they want to work with?

None of this was provided, but you're criticised for suggesting they search.

Have you ever been to Google? Have you seen the box next to the button labled "Search"? What do you suppose happens if you put something even remotely close to what you're talking about in the box and press the button?

For a closer analogy, if you asked a farmer for a tip on "farming", the farmer would reply something along the lines of "Go to the library."

That's a closer analogy.

Just like this poor example of "Images in C++", asking "Give me a tip on 'farming'." is equally vague and a stupid question. In either case, I would reply as my first reply here: Narrow it down. What exactly are you trying to do.